Shoeshine aka Sciuscia by Vittorio De Sica was The 1948 Nominee for The Oscar for Best Writing, Original Screenplay and was The Winner of the Honorary Award at that festivity, it is also one of The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made – you have many notes on films from The NYT 1,000 and other lists, together with reviews of books from The GOAT and other sites on my blog and YouTube channel https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html

 

Shoeshine aka Sciuscia by Vittorio De Sica was The 1948 Nominee for The Oscar for Best Writing, Original Screenplay and was The Winner of  the Honorary Award at that festivity, it is also one of The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made – you have many notes on films from The NYT 1,000 and other lists, together with reviews of books from The GOAT and other sites on my blog and YouTube channel https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html

 

9 out of 10

 

Vittorio De Sica was one of the greatest film makers of all time, although I have been thinking of him mostly as a ‘comedian’, remembering him as the director of Marriage Italian Style https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/07/marriage-italian-style-based-on.html although De Sica has made fabulous tragedies as well

 

Giuseppe Filippucci and Pasquale Maggi are the children who dominate this film, Franco Interlenghi has the role of the latter, he would later have roles in some exceptional motion pictures like I Vitelloni – Giuseppe and Pasquale shine shoes, very often, or mostly for the American soldiers present in Italy during World War II

Back then, they were allies, I mean, after they won major battles against Mussolini’s and the Nazi troops, but now, Europe has to think how to defend itself not against Russia – that too, evidently – but against the MAGA country, America, which has this incredibly awful Orange Jester in the White House, which he has demolished in part

 

I am listening in the background to Jimmy Kimmel, Jon Stewart and Seth Meyers, to learn what has happened over the last day without feeling nausea, and they talk and joke about the Orange fool, who posted about his plans for the 400,000,000 dollars ballroom, just as his troops kill citizens on the streets of Minnesota

Umberto D https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/umberto-d-written-by-cesare-zavattini.html is another masterpiece from the same glorious Vittorio De Sica, a tragedy as well, this one telling the story of an old man, who has to leave the room he has rented, with his dog, thinking of suicide and the end of things

 

The boys in Shoeshine try to save money, and they get this horse, just as they get into trouble, they try and sell some blankets which had been stolen from the same Americans (I think) and given to them by some adults, but as they negotiate with this woman, some men come at the door and claim they are from the police

It is just a scam, and they take away money from the victim (the woman was buying stolen property and she knew it) and the police takes the poor boys to jail, pressing them to testify and give them the names of the criminals, they even pretend they beat Giuseppe, using another boy who acts as if he is in pain, to press Pasquale

 

Thinking his friend is in excruciating pain, he does not see the scene, but hears the screams, he tells the investigators the names, then things get complicated, they have to go on trial, and I will not say what happens, only add that this is about suffering, the terrible fate of children who had to endure the horror of war and the aftermath

https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/06/garden-of-finzi-continis-10-out-of-10.html

 

Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – I am on Goodreads as Realini Ionescu, at least for the moment, if I keep on expressing my views on Orange Woland aka TACO, it may be a short-lived presence

Also, maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the benefits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

 There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

 

Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works

 

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’